Lauderhill double shooting was murder-suicide, police say

Paul Freeman and Tonia Patterson found dead

Lauderhill police have ruled a fatal double shooting a murder-suicide.

The dead man and woman, discovered in a single-family home Wednesday, have been identified as Paul Freeman, 52, of Lauderdale Lakes, and Tonia Patterson, 34, of Lauderhill, Capt. Rick Rocco said.

"He killed her and then he killed himself," Rocco said. "It was a domestic fight that went really, really bad."

The couple was found around 6 p.m. in a room at a boarding house in the 3300 block of Northwest 17th Street, police said.

Boarders in three neighboring bedrooms heard the gunshots and called police and fire rescue. Detectives found a "small-caliber pistol" at the scene but no suicide note, Rocco said.

It was not known what the couple had been arguing about, he said.

A neighbor from across the street claimed the couple had lived in the home for only two months but fought all the time and that the man had just gotten out of prison.

Freeman was released from the Everglades Correctional Institution on Sept. 3, after being sentenced to more than three years for cocaine convictions. He also served time for burglary, robbery and weapons convictions in Broward dating to 1988, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Patterson also was sentenced to a year in jail for cocaine possession and was released in 2009, court records show.